What happened to StarCraft II legend Life?

Lee “Life” Seung-hyun started playing StarCraft 2 professionally at the age of fourteen and won his first tournament a year later. The South Korean was a top player from a young age, winning tournament after tournament and earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. But after a match-fixing scandal, the light of the once great legend went out.

Life made his television debut eleven days after his fifteenth birthday, having been playing StarCraft 2 at a professional level for almost a year. He played two games in the 2012 Global StarCraft Team League (GSTL) Season 1 for his team ZeNEX, which was televised live. Though he lost both games, that was just the beginning for the superstar. Three months later at the GSTL Season 2, Life showed what he’s made of, sweeping away all Team Liquid players.

The beginnings of the career

In August 2012, ZeNEX was acquired by StarTale, making the team larger. This allowed Life to train RTS to play longer and better. His first reward for all his hard work came in September of that same year when he placed second in the Team Liquid Star League. But that’ was still just the prelude to the rest of the year.

In October, during the fourth GSTL season, one of the biggest StarCraft events at the time, he took the tournament victory., which earned the 15-year-old $45,000 in one fell swoop. A month and a half later, Life beat his teammate PartinG in the finals of the GSL Blizzard Cup and took home another $63,000.

Fame, honor and above all: cash

Life had a strong start to 2013, including a win at MLG Winter. However, the star player stumbled as the Hearth of the Swarm expansion came out and many changes were made to StarCraft 2. For a whole year, Life didn’t play as well as at the beginning of his career, but in mid-2014, he regained his form and wins the Dreamhack Bucharest. But just like in 2012, he saved the biggest success for autumn.

At the World Championships at Blizzcon, Life started as number fourteen in the world. He knocked out the title favorite Zest in the first round and continued to improve as the tournament progressed. After a dominant final against MMA, he won the world title and the accompanying main prize of $100,000.

He also managed to win multiple tournaments in 2015. The IEM Season X was the loot for him, and he also managed to win the Global StarCraft League again. Just like in 2014, he was in the Global Finals of World Championships at Blizzcon, only this time, he ended up second, with his compatriot sOs winning 4-3. Although he was only eighteen at the time, it was his last major tournament.

The abysses behind the scenes

During his four-year career, Life managed to amass nearly half a million dollars in winnings. This made him one of the most successful and highest-earning StarCraft 2 players of all time. He was an absolute top player, fans and colleagues looked up to him and wanted to play against and with him, but all that wasn’t enough.

Unfortunately, Life had a major weakness that eventually became his undoing — he loved gambling. There were rumors that he sometimes lost tens of thousands of dollars at the gaming table.

Various people knew about it and wanted to help him. And sometimes it worked for a short time, but he always went back to his old habits. The addiction kept growing, and in 2016, things only got worse. Life was nineteen at the time, with enough money to spend after his massive wins.

The abrupt end of a promising career

In January 2016, Life joined Team Afreeca Freecs in search of a new success. However, that journey never got off the ground, as days after his transfer, he was arrested on suspicion of match-fixing — something taken very seriously in South Korea, including in esports.

Life is said to have received a total of $62,000 for intentionally losing two games. For comparison, this was more than six times the grand prize from the KespA Cup, the tournament where he lost twice, supposedly on purpose. By the time Life was arrested, several other StarCraft 2 players had already been found guilty.

April 2016 brought the news that many fans already saw coming. Two StarCraft 2 players — Life and Bbyong — were found guilty of match-fixing. Eleven other people involved were also arrested. A sentence of a permanent ban from all KeSPA events was imposed for Life and the entire $62,000 had to be paid back as a fine. Furthermore, he was sentenced to one and a half years in prison, which ended his StarCraft 2 career.

It’s unknown what Life is up to today, but chances are slim that we’ll ever see him again. A gambling addiction ended the career of the Korean once considered by many to be the greatest StarCraft 2 player of all time.

Header: Blizzard Entertainment, Lee “Life” Seung-hyun